The Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) is sponsoring Alnahda Society in Riyadh with the aim of joining forces to support the advocacy of women's issues in Saudi Arabia. As part of the sponsorship, SIDF will contribute to the Women 20 (W20), an official G20 engagement group focused on women's empowerment and gender equality. The W20 is part of the G20 process entitled to develop actionable policy recommendations to advance women's priorities by mainstreaming gender issues and considerations into G20 discussions. Commenting on the sponsorship, Eng. Noor Shabib Vice President Strategic Planning & Business Development at SIDF noted that "working together with the W20 will advance our mutual agenda on women empowerment, diversity and inclusion. This support stresses SIDF's commitment to Vision 2030's strategic goal of raising Saudi women's economic participation rate to 30% and enabling women to attain more leadership positions across the country". Within governmental entities, SIDF is considered a pioneer in workforce gender diversity. In less than three years, SIDF has increased the percentage of its female employees from 0 to 15 percent of total workforce; now employing 159 female employees all of whom hold positions ranging from junior officers to top management and across all departments. "As the main financial enabler of Saudi Vision's NIDLP program, SIDF deploys a wide range of lending and advisory products to the private sector. SIDF applies a gender-neutral policy that ensures no discrimination between men and women with regards to access to services and opportunities", said Shabib. "Labor inclusion and inclusive decision making are one of the W20's key priorities and we are delighted that SIDF has joined as an advocate. The W20 is committed to ensuring that women occupy leadership roles and engage in equal and meaningful participation in the decision making across all sectors. Through our shared agendas and joint efforts, we will be able to achieve the best positive outcomes for women in the workplace", W20's Sherpa, Salma Al Rashid, stated commenting on the partnership. SIDF continues to innovate new, more tailored products and services that ensure to offer the same opportunities to both men and women investors in the private sector, in efforts to increase the private sector's participation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
